A St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer was struck and killed by a driver on Interstate 70 on Sunday morning.
David Lee, an 18-year veteran of the SLMPD, died in surgery at St. Louis University Hospital after the vehicle crash left him in critical condition. He was 44 years old.
Lee was responding to a separate wreck around 8:30 a.m. on eastbound I-70 near Grand Boulevard and was setting up warning flares and traffic cones around the scene when he was struck, according to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
“We're devastated. We're heartbroken,” said SLPMD Chief Robert Tracy at a Sunday night press conference. “But we will continue to serve and protect the city of St Louis and make our fallen colleague proud.”
The 24-year-old driver who struck Lee after losing control of his vehicle stayed on scene after the crash. Responding officers suspect the driver was impaired, Tracy said, though he did not specify what might have caused the impairment.
The chief said the driver was not a St. Louis resident and lived in a nearby county. The 24-year-old remains in custody as the department continues its investigation.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore said Sunday evening that his office will evaluate the facts of the case when the police department files their charges.
The person involved in the first single vehicle crash, which prompted Lee to stop, was an off-duty Ferguson firefighter headed home after work, Tracy said. Lee followed department protocol when he started to set up flares and cones to alert motorists of the first crash.
Tracy and other law enforcement officers said the rainy conditions hurt visibility and driving conditions on the busy interstate.
“The interstate is just a dangerous place to be,” said Paul Lauer, commander of the police department’s traffic division.
SLMPD leaders described Lee as a quiet, hardworking officer. He had been assigned to patrol north St. Louis. Lee is survived by a wife and two children.
Lee is now the 167th SLMPD officer to die on duty, according to the department.
“I ask our entire city and our region to be the comfort that the Lee family needs and deserves as their lives are upended by this terrible tragedy,” Mayor Tishuara Jones said.
This story has been updated with information about the crash and comments from a 7 p.m. Sept. 22 press conference.
